Vaccine vs. Virus: Which Is the Bigger Threat?

The deaths of more than 100 children have been officially linked to receiving a measles vaccine during the past decade, according to the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Yet the childhood measles mortality count over the same period remains at zero, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Put another way, in the last 10 years an American child would have been highly more likely to die after receiving a measles shot than from contracting the disease itself. Thousands more have suffered from adverse reactions to the measles inoculation and other vaccines. The explosive numbers have massive implications for public health efforts, analysts say.

Of course, the establishment media has entirely ignored these figures in the wake of the recent Disneyland measles outbreak. As of mid-February, the number of confirmed measles cases had climbed to 113, prompting vicious attacks from mainstream media against “anti-vaxxers.” In the cross hairs are parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, even though CDC officials say the epidemic was likely introduced at the Disneyland theme park by a person infected with measles overseas. USA Today even published a screed encouraging the jailing of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, though it was not clear whether the Amish and other religious communities would be included in the proposed mass roundups.

Now, elements of the “mainstream” media are engaged in a damage-control effort. Media reports repeatedly and erroneously maintain that measles could not spread in a fully vaccinated society, while assuring readers of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. In some cases, as with the New York Times, even the media’s sources have lambasted reporters for deceiving readers with propaganda. “It seems clear to me that your reporters or writers knew exactly how they wanted to frame this story before they even conducted the interview with me, and when what I actually said didn’t fit well into that story, they had to dissect and then re-combine my words in order to make them fit the intended picture that they either expected or wanted to convey,” said Kelly McMenimen, the mother of an unvaccinated child whose interview was distorted, in an open letter to the Times editor.

However, since data revealing the truth about vaccines is publicly available online through the federal government, the facts are going viral through the alternative press. It appears the first outlet to put the information together in one report was Health Impact News, sparking a cascade of follow-up stories from various sources. HealthImpactNews.com editor Brian Shilhavy recounted that there have been no child measles deaths since 2003 in the United States, highlighting data from a CDC report issued in April of last year in response to a nationwide upsurge in measles cases.